Pratt Institute School of Architecture Undergraduate Architecture Program Course Syllabus

Arch 308 History of Modernism Fall 2003

Credits: 3 Type of Course: Required Seminar Class Meetings: Wednesday, 2-5 PM, Rm 310 HHS Prerequisites: Arch 206 & 207 or equivalent Enrollment Capacity: 20 Instructor’s Name, location, and class meeting times: .01 Alessandra Ponte HH N 104 W 10-1

.02 Mark Lamster HH N 202 W 10-1 .03 Edward Wendt HH S 213 W 10-1 .04 Poyin Auyeung HH N 103 W 10-1

.05 John Lobell HH S 310 W 2-5 .06 Diane Lewis HH N 103 W 2-5

Course Overview: Following a two-semester lecture survey (Arch 206 & Arch 207) dealing with architecture from pre-history to 1900, this seminar is the third course in the required history sequence. Arch 308 examines the architecture of the 20th century focusing on the buildings and writings of the modern movement from the turn of the century to the 1960s. Though dealing primarily with architectural developments in Europe and the United States, the class will also examine the spread of modernism to Asia and Central and South America. During the course, modernism will be considered as an ideological and theoretical proposition which had aesthetic, social, and political consequences throughout the 20th century. Learning Objectives: The goal of this seminar is two-fold. First, it aims to give students a comprehensive understanding of architectural developments in the 20th century to further their knowledge of the profession’s recent history and broaden their grasp of those programmatic and formal precedents considered pertinent to contemporary practice. Second, it aims to continue building those critical skills developed in Arch 104, 206, and 207, specifically as they relate to architectural research and analysis. In particular, through seminar discussion and assignments students will sharpen their verbal and writing skills. The shift from lecture survey to focused seminar in Arch 308 is intended to provide an opportunity for in-depth study of a particular subject, preparing students for upper-level elective seminars. Course Requirements:

• Regular attendance at weekly seminars (grade will be lowered one letter grade of more than three unexcused absences. A late counts as 1/2 absence.)

• Completion of weekly reading assignments (the ones in bold with an asterix [*] are the most important)

• There will be a quiz on the reading most weeks (25%) • Participation in seminar discussions (25%) • Three response statements to readings in Curtis, Conrads and Ockman (10%) • Paper (40%)

Note: Additional assignments and/or changes may be made at the discretion of the instructor. Instructor: John Lobell JohnlobellPratt@aol.com 212-679-1935

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Bibliography: Required: These required textbooks are available at the Pratt Bookstore and are on reserve in the library. Conrads, Ulrich, ed. Programs and Manifestoes on 20th Century Architecture. Trans. Michael Bullock. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1971. Curtis, William J. Modern Architecture Since 1900. 3rd edition. 1996; rpt. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1997. Ockman, Joan, ed. Architecture Culture, 1943-1968: A Documentary Anthology. New York: Rizzoli, 1993. Recommended Banham, Reyner. Theory and Design in the First Machine Age. 1960; rpt. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1992. Benevolo, Leonardo. History of Modern Architecture I & II. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1971. Frampton, Kenneth. Modern Architecture: A Critical History. London/New York: Thames and Hudson, 1985 (or revised edition, 1992). Peter, John. The Oral History of Modern Architecture. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1994. Risebero, Bill. Modern Architecture and Design: An Alternative History. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1982. Tafuri, Manfredo and Francesco Dal Co. Modern Architecture 1 & 2. New York: Rizzoli, 1986.

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Paper The reading we have done in Curtis, Ockman, and Conrads depicts the beginnings of modern architecture, and also, when taken together, various visions of and aspirations for the future on the part of the pioneering modern architects. Background This future would involve a different kind of life. A different role for the artist. A different role for the architect. A different kind of industry. A different kind of city. And of course, different buildings. And, in most cases, these are optimistic futures. Assignment Part one Describe the visions of the future that you see presented in our reading covering the period from 1900 to 1940. You should present some generalizations, but also chose one major architect to focus on. • Be specific in addressing the issues listed above (life, artist, architect, industry, city, buildings). • Make specific references to the reading. • Extract quotes from the reading as much as you wish to make your points. (Properly credit all

quotes.) Part two The above should be about half of your essay. In the next quarter, give your thoughts on the following: • Were the visions and aspirations of these architects good ones? Why? • Did these visions and aspirations come about? If so, give examples. If not, what happened

instead? (Or, -- what went wrong?) Part three Finally, these people had these visions and aspirations at the dawn of the 20th Century. We are now at the dawn of the 21st Century. What can we learn from them as we set out to make our contributions to the making of the 21st Century? (This part can be brief.) Format Printed from computer, Times font, 12 pt., 1 1/2 space, ample margins. Use a title page that has the title of your paper one third down, centered, and in the lower right has: Your name ARCH 308 Section 5 JohnLobell Fall 2003 Do not use a cover of any kind. Just staple your paper with one staple in the upper left corner.

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(continued) Length Your paper should be between 2,500 and 4,500 words. Attributions For the formats for quotes and bibliography, use A Pocket Style Manual, Third Edition, Diana Hacker. Usage For any questions on usage, refer to Hacker Due Dates First draft: 11/12 Final Paper: 12/03 Lecture Notes The lectures in this course cover important material in the development of modern architecture. One way we will know if you have absorbed this material is if it show up in your notes. The way you retain material in a course is by taking notes. While it is difficult to listen to a lecture and take notes at the same time, it is vital to be able to do so. If you do not take notes, chances are you will not retain the material. While I hope my lectures are interesting, they are intended as more than entertainment. The taking of notes and is what makes them more than entertainment. (Yes, you are permitted to record the lectures in any format. However, if you do, you must still take notes during the lectures.) Notes should not be a verbatim transcript of the lecture, but an organized outline of the key ideas. Of course it is difficult to comprehend the material in a lecture and get it into an organized outline during the lecture, but it is the very act of doing so that gives you mastery of the material and helps it stick in your mind. Doing this makes you an active participant in the lecture, not just a passive listener, and helps you make the material your own. Since this is an architecture course, you should include sketches and diagrams in your notes. The best way to study is to review your notes shortly after class every week. If you are really serious, you might want to rewrite or type up your notes each week while the lecture is still fresh in your mind. You will of course want to review them again before the final exam. If this is a good course, and if you have taken good notes and perhaps re-written them, you will want to keep them, along with notes and other material from most of your courses, indefinitely as part of your personal architectural library. As in indication that I take this seriously, I want you to turn in a xerox copy of you notes for the entire course on December 3.

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Semester Schedule:

• For each week a theme or seminar topic is listed, followed by required readings from Curtis, Conrads and/or Ockman. Assigned reading must be completed BEFORE each class.

• Each week, the seminar presentation and discussion will focus on selected buildings and projects. These are listed as “Key Works” and most are illustrated in Curtis.

• Individual instructors will indicate which readings and key works will be emphasized each week. • Students must remember that Arch 308 is an upper-level seminar and NOTan introductory lecture

class. Students must actively participate in weekly discussions. Week Date Topic & Assigments Week 1 9/03 Introduction: What is Modernism?

Themes and Variations in 20th Century Architecture Week 2 9/10 Machine as Metaphor Reading

-Curtis: Chapter 6, Responses to Mechanization * -Conrads: Muthesius, “Aims of the Werkbund” * -Conrads: Muthesius/Van de Velde, “Werkbund theses and antitheses” -Conrads: Sant’Elia/Marinetti, “Futurist Architecture” *

Key Works ⇒ ⇒ ⇒ ⇒ ⇒

Peter Behrens, AEG Turbine Factory Gropius & Meyer, Fagus Factory Werkbund Exhibition, Cologne, 1914 Antonio Sant’Elia, La Citta Nuova Futurist Painting

Week 3 9/17 New Concepts of Space & Time Reading

-Curtis: Chapter 7, The Architectural System of Frank Lloyd Wright * -Curtis: Chapter 9, Cubism, De Stijl and New Conceptions of Space -Conrads: De Stijl, “Manifesto I” -Conrads: De Stijl, “Creative Demands” -Conrads: De Stijl, Manifesto V” -Conrads: van Doesburg, “Towards a Plastic Architecture”

Key Works ⇒ ⇒ ⇒ ⇒ ⇒

Frank Lloyd Wright, Robie House Frank Lloyd Wright, Larkin Building Frank Lloyd Wright, Unity Temple Gerrit Rietveld, Schroeder House Cubist Painting

Written Response to Curtis, Chapter 7 due

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Week 4 9/24 Architecture & Modern Industrial Society--France Reading

-Curtis: Chapter 4, pp. 83-85 * -Curtis: Chapter 10, Le Corbusier’s Quest for Ideal Form *

-Curtis: Chapter 15, pp. 268-69 * -Curtis: Chapter 16, The Image and Idea of Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye * -Conrads: Le Corbusier, “Towards a New Architecture: Guiding Principles” *

-Conrads: Le Corbusier, “Five Points Towards a New Architecture” * Key Works

⇒ ⇒ ⇒ ⇒ ⇒ ⇒

Le Corbusier, Maison Citrohan Le Corbusier, Villa Savoye Le Corbusier, Pavilion l’esprit nouveau Le Corbusier, Five Points of a New Architecture Le Corbusier, Ville Contemporaine Pierre Charreau, Maison de Verre

Written Response to Le Corbusier writing in Conrads due Week 5 10/01 Architecture & Modern Industrial Society--Germany Reading

-Curtis: Chapter 11, Walter Gropius, German Expressionism & the Bauhaus * -Curtis: Chapter 14, pp. 249-52 -Curtis: Chapter 15, pp. 270-73 -Curtis: Chapter 18, pp. 307-9

-Conrads: Scheerbart, “Glass Architecture” -Conrads: Gropius, Taut, Behne, “New Ideas on Architecture” -Conrads: Gropius, “Programme of the Staatliches Bauhaus in Weimar” * -Conrads: Mendelsohn, “The Problem of a New Architecture” -Conrads: Mies, “Industrialized Building” -Conrads: Gropius, “Principles of Bauhaus Production” * -Conrads: Meyer, “Building” Key Works

⇒ ⇒ ⇒ ⇒ ⇒ ⇒

Erich Mendelsohn, Einstein Tower Bruno Taut, Glass Pavilion Walter Gropius, Dessau Bauhaus Mies, Barcelona Pavilion Mies, Tugendhat House German Siedlungen: Ernst May, Bruno Taut, Martin Wagner, etc.

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Week 6 10/08 Architecture & Modern Industrial Society—US & Russia Reading

-Curtis: Chapter 12, Architecture and Revolution in Russia -Curtis: Chapter 13, Skyscraper and Suburb: The USA between the Wars * -Curtis: Chapter 14, The Ideal Community: Alternatives to the Industrial City

-Conrads: Gabo/Pevsner, “Basic Principles of Constructivism” -Conrads: Malevich, “Suprematist Manifesto” -Conrads: Le Corbusier, “Guiding Principles of Town Planning”

-Conrads: El Lissitzky, “Ideological Superstructure” -Conrads: Wright, “Young Architecture” Key Works

⇒ ⇒ ⇒ ⇒ ⇒ ⇒ ⇒ ⇒

Tatlin, Monument to the Third International Melnikov, USSR Pavilion, Art Deco Expo Palace of the Soviets Competition (Corb’s project; Iofan’s winning entry) Tribune Tower Competition Howe and Lescaze, PSFS Building Richard Neutra, Lovell Health House Raymond Hood et al, Rockefeller Center Frank Lloyd Wright, Ennis House

Week 7 10/15 The International Style & the Spread of Modern Architecture Reading

-Curtis: Chapter 15, The International Style…Myth of Functionalism * -Curtis: Chapter 19, Spread of Modern Architecture to Britain and Scandanavia -Curtis: Chapter 21, International, National, Regional: Diversity of New Tradition

-Conrads: CIAM, “La Sarraz Declaration” -Conrads: CIAM, “Charter of Athens” Key Works

⇒ ⇒ ⇒ ⇒ ⇒ ⇒ ⇒ ⇒ ⇒ ⇒

Weisenhoffsiedlung in Stuttgart International Style Exhibition, Museum of Modern Art Stone and Goodwin, Museum of Modern Art Lubetkin & Tecton, London Zoo Penguin Pool Lubetkin & Tecton, High Point I Apartments Erich Mendelsohn, Schocken Department Store Alvar Aalto, Villa Mairea Alvar Aalto, Paimio Sanatorium Johannes Duiker, Open-Air School, Amsterdam Juan O’Gorman, Studios for Rivera and Kahlo

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Week 8 10/22 Nationalism, Politics & the State: Architecture in the 1930s Reading

-Curtis: Chapter 17, The Continuity of Older Traditions -Curtis: Chapter 18, Nature and the Machine: Mies, Wright, and Corb in 1930s * -Curtis: Chapter 20, Totalitarian Critiques of the Modern Movement Key Works

⇒ ⇒ ⇒ ⇒ ⇒ ⇒ ⇒ ⇒ ⇒ ⇒ ⇒

Frank Lloyd Wright, Falling Water Frank Lloyd Wright, Johnson-Wax William Lescaze et al, Williamsburg Houses Walter Gropius, Gropius House Buckminster Fuller, Dymaxion House Le Corbusier, Pavilion Suisse Guissepi Terragni, Casa del Fascio Guerrini, Palazzo della Civilta Italiana Albert Speer, Nuremberg Zeppelinfield 1937 International Exposition Paris (German and USSR Pavilions) Albert Kahn & Norman Bel Geddes, GM Pavilion World’s Fair

Week 9 10/29 World War II & Its Aftermath II—the US Reading

-Curtis: Chapter 22, Modern Architecture in USA: Immig. and Consolidation * -Conrads: Mies, “Technology and Architecture” * -Ockman: Hudnut, “The Post-modern House”

-Ockman: Lods, “Return from America” -Ockman: Fuller, “Designing a New Industry” * -Ockman: Gruen, “Cityscape and Landscape” Key Works

⇒ ⇒ ⇒ ⇒ ⇒ ⇒ ⇒ ⇒ ⇒ ⇒

Charles and Ray Eames, Eames House Pierre Koenig, etc., Case Study House Program Mies, Seagram Building Mies, Lake Shore Drive Apartments Mies, Farnsworth House Johnson, Glass House Mies, IIT Campus & Crown Hall SOM, Lever House Saarinen, GM Research Center Wallace K. Harrison, et al, United Nations

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Week 10 11/05 World War II & Its Aftermath I—Europe Reading

-Curtis: Chapter 23, Form and Meaning in the Late Works of Le Corbusier * -Curtis: Chapter 24, Unité d’habitation …as a Collective Housing Prototype * -Curtis: Chapter 26, Disjunctions and Continuities in the Europe of the 1950s

-Conrads: Gropius/Wagner, “A Program for City Reconstruction” -Conrads: German architects, “A Post-War Appeal: Fundamental Demands”

-Ockman: Le Corbusier, “Ineffable Space” -Ockman: CIAM 8, “Summary of Needs at the Core”

Key Works ⇒ ⇒ ⇒ ⇒ ⇒ ⇒ ⇒ ⇒ ⇒

Le Corbusier, Unité d’habitation Le Corbusier, Ronchamp Le Corbusier, La Tourette Le Corbusier, Chandigarh London County Council, Roehampton Estate Dennis Lasdun, Cluster Block Bethnal Green Alison & Peter Smithson, Golden Lane Scheme Marcel Breuer & Pier Luigi Nervi, UNESCO Headquarters Hans Scharoun, Berlin Philharmonie

Week 11 11/12 Later Modernism I: Flamboyant, Monumental & Regional Reading

-Curtis: Chapter 25, Alvar Aalto and Scandanavian Developments -Curtis: Chapter 27, The Process of Absorption: Latin America, Austalia, Japan

-Curtis: Chapter 28, On Monuments and Monumentality: Louis I. Kahn * -Ockman: Sert, Leger, Giedion, “Nine Points on Monumentality” -Ockman: Kahn, “Architecture is the Thoughtful Making of Spaces” *

-Ockman: Aalto, “The Architect’s Conscience” -Ockman: Niemeyer, “Form and Function in Architecture”

Key Works ⇒ ⇒ ⇒ ⇒ ⇒ ⇒ ⇒ ⇒ ⇒ ⇒ ⇒ ⇒ ⇒ ⇒

Saarinen, TWA Terminal Wright, Guggenheim Museum Kahn, Richards Medical Center Kahn, Salk Institute Kahn, Dacca Rudolph, Yale Art and Architecture Building Aalto, Baker Dormitory Aalto, Helsinki University of Technology Aalto, Saaynatsalo Town Center Barragan, Monumental Towers of Satellite City Barragan, Egerstrom Residence and Stables Niemeyer, Church of St. Francis Assisi Niemeyer, Brasilia Kenzo Tange, Peace Memorial & Museum

Research Paper, Draft Due

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Week 12 11/19 Later Modernism II: Reactions & Extensions Reading

-Curtis: Chapter 29, Architecture and Anti-Architecture in Britain -Curtis: Chapter 30, Extension and Critique in the 1960s * -Ockman: Smithson, “The New Brutalism”

-Ockman: Dorn Manifesto -Ockman: Stirling, “Regionalism and Modern Architecture” * -Ockman: Maki and Ohtaka, “Toward Group Form” Key Works

⇒ ⇒ ⇒ ⇒ ⇒ ⇒ ⇒ ⇒ ⇒ ⇒

Alison and Peter Smithson, Hunstanton School James Stirling, Ham Commons James Stirling, Engineering Building, Leister University Peter Cook, Plug-In City Kenzo Tange, Yamanashi Press and Radio Center, Kofu Isozaki, Metabolist Scheme for a Modern City Aldo van Eyck, Orphanage, Amsterdam Michael Graves, Benacerraf House Addition Peter Eisenmann, Houses I-X Richard Meier, Smith House

Week 13 11/26 Modernism Today Week 14 12/03 Modernism Today Research Paper Due Xerox of Lecture Notes Due Week 15 12/10 Jury Week—No Class Week 16 12/17 Discussion Summary of Due Dates: 9/17 Written Response to Curtis, Chapter 7 9/24 Written Response to Le Corbusier writing in Conrads 11/12 Research Paper Draft Due 12/03 Research Paper Due

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Notes from 1st Lecture

• What is Modern Architecture?

- or -

• What Was Modern Architecture?

In other words, are we still today in the era of Modern

Architecture, or is it over, having been replaced by some

form of “Post-Modernism”?

That would then, of course, require us to define Post-

Modernism.

Where We Now Locate Modernism

• Gothic, about 1150 to 1350

• Renaissance, about 1400 to 1600

• Baroque, about 1600 to 1700

• Rococo, about 1700 to 1750

• The Enlightenment

(Neo-Classicism and Romanticism), about 1700

to 1800

• 19th Century, 1800 to 1900

• Modernism, about 1900 to ?

There have been other placings of Modernism, including

the Renaissance and the Enlightenment.

We need to distinguish between:

• Modernism

• Modern Architecture

• The Modern Movement

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And, if we want to use the term:

• Post-Modernism

General scholarship a few years ago settled on the late

1700s for the beginning of Modern Architecture. When

we say The Modern Movement, we usually bean the

International Style, beginning in the 1920s and extending

to about 1960.

We are not yet sure what we mean by Post-Modernism,

but so far it does not seem to be good.

What is a “Modern Person?”

Some historians used to begin Modernism with the

Renaissance (around 1400). That would make Leonardo

da Vinci a “Modern person.”

Stephen J. Gould, in Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and

the Diet of Worms: Essays on Natural History,

convincingly demonstrates that Leonardo was not a

modern person.

In reading biographies, we begin to feel a commonality

with people (feeling they are like us) from the late 1700s

on. The American “founding fathers,” John Adams,

Thomas Jefferson, and particularly Benjamin Franklin

come to mind. Also Shelly, Byron, and Keats. And of

course, also Freud, Darwin and Marx, but their beards

give them a feeling to us of Victorian stiffness that makes

them somewhat distant.

Cultural Background of Modernism

• Decline of the Church

• Decline of Monarchy and rise of democracy

• Rise of a scientific worldview

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• The Industrial Revolution

Modernism, Rationality, and Science

Observation of Nature: Leonardo

Leonardo da Vinci’s (1452-1519) drawings of machines

show a mechanistic view of nature that has been with us

since before the building of the pyramids.

Scientific Understanding of Nature: Newton

Galileo (dropped weights from the Leaning Tower of Pisa

late 1590s), Newton (Principia Mathematica, 1687),

Maxwell (Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism, 1873),

and others gave us the tools for understanding nature.

Control of Nature: Watt

Papin (1679), Watt, (1765) and others, harnessed that

understanding to control nature through the steam engine.

New approaches to materials (iron and steel) were also

important, and well as industrial processes.

Extension of Scientific Understanding and Control to

Humans: Darwin, Marx, and Freud

The key to Modernism is the extension of

scientific/rational understanding from nature to human

being. This is called the Enlightenment. (In

Government: The American Declaration of Independence

and Constitution.) Marx applies scientific understanding

and control to history, Darwin extends it to biology, and

Freud extends it to psychology.

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The Enlightenment

In the 18th Century, the European Enlightenment, building

on Renaissance Humanism, began to forge a new human

identity built not on faith and authority, but on reason.

“Man is the measure of all things,” borrowed from the

Greeks, was the slogan of the Renaissance.

The Enlightenment extended the insights of Newton, etc.

to individuals and society. Science, using the reasoning

powers of the educated mind, could understand the

universe (cosmology), nature (the physical sciences),

human beings (psychology), and society (political

science). And, not only understand, but also control

toward the objective of making a better life. We associate

the Enlightenment with such European thinkers as

Voltaire and Diderot and such American counterparts as

Franklin and Jefferson.

Modernism and Modern Architecture

What was the notion of Human Being that had emerged

by the 20th Century? It was a materialistic notion that can

best be summarized by the great late 19th and early 20th

Century figures, Darwin, Marx, and Freud.

Darwin

Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection says we

are animals, sharing common ancestors with the apes. We

arrived at our human state by mechanistic chance and will

eventually evolve to something else. Our intelligence and

consciousness are not consequences of a divine gift, but

of evolutionary pressure on neural processes.

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Marx

Marx’s insight into history tells us that the nature of an

age is a consequence of its material means of production.

Marx contends that just as the physical sciences gave us

an understanding of and a control over nature, so his

scientific socialism now gives us an understanding of and

control over society and even history.

Freud

Freud’s theory of the unconscious tells us that our mental

processes are analogous to mechanisms, with pressure

from the libido, repression by the super ego, and release

through socially productive sublimation. Our motivations

are not the lofty forwarding of the human enterprise, but

the fulfillment of biological urges under social

constraints.

Human Being

Humans, then, are natural creatures, understandable and

controllable by the social sciences just as nature is by the

physical sciences. And Modern Architecture is a part of

that scientific insight, itself growing out of natural laws

and serving social purposes.

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Modern Architecture

Echoing Viollet-le-Duc’s “[Architecture] must be true

according to the programme and true according to the

methods of construction,” Oskar Schlemmer, writing for

the first Bauhaus Exhibition in 1923 stated, “Reason and

science, ‘man’s greatest powers,’ are the regents, and the

engineer is the sedate executor of unlimited possibilities.

Mathematics, structure, and mechanization are the

elements, and power and money are the dictators of this

modern phenomena of steel, concrete, glass, and

electricity….”

Modernism (The Enlightenment)

Rationalism, Progress, and Optimism

Modernism (and the Enlightenment) is the belief that

rationalism, and particularly science, can understand and

will improve the human condition. This improvement

will be continuous, thus the notion of progress.

• Science gives us the means to understand nature

• Science and engineering give us the means to control

nature

• With these means we can produce the goods and

services needed for human prosperity and happiness

• The social sciences (political science, sociology, and

psychology) give us the means to understand and

control society and individuals

• With these means we can create governmental and

social orders that will foster prosperity, harmony, and

happiness

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Challenges to the Enlightenment, Modernism, and

Progress include:

Romanticism

• Nature surpasses our ability to understand and control

it

• Social dynamics surpasses our ability to understand

and control them

• The unconscious surpasses our ability to understand

and control it

Marxism

Actually an extension of the optimism of the

Enlightenment, with the addition of the necessity for

greater organized intervention and control

Fundamentalism (Religious, Ethnic, Cultural, Etc.) “I chose to believe the teachings/traditions of my

religion/group, and I reject the findings of science, etc.

Deconstruction (two varieties)

• Power: The desire for power is so pervasive and so

subtle that its perniciousness cannot be overcome,

even by Enlightenment (rational and scientific)

thinking and institutions

• Nihilism: There are no bedrock underlying realities

or values (the exclusions include progress, prosperity,

harmony, and happiness), so they cannot be achieved.

Any suggestion of such achievement can be

deconstructed to show its falseness or non-existence.

Transhumanism

A radical extension of the Enlightenment.

Nanotechnology will create infinite wealth, biotechnology

will create practical immortality, AI will create intelligent

machines, and humans as we have known them will

transcend into new forms.

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Archetypalism

Associated with Jung, best articulated by Joseph

Campbell. Yes, the forces of nature, culture, and the

unconsciousness transcend the ability of rationalism to

understand them, but they can be understood through

metaphor. Religious, cultural, and artistic traditions,

understood metaphorically, can be powerful tools for

such understanding.

So, where are we today?

Do you believe in progress, and that this progress will

bring us more prosperity, harmony, and happiness?

• If so, you are a Modernist

Do you reject that there is progress, and that we can

achieve more prosperity, harmony, and happiness?

• If so, you are not a Modernist

In the second instance, we might say that you are a

Postmodernism, but that is a negative concept. We have

not yet adequately defined Postmodernism.

(Deconstructionist is not adequate – it refers merely to a

technique, not a mode of Being.)

Concepts of Space

• Newtonian (Cartesian) Space

The Enlightenment

The Beaux Arts

• Einstein’s Relativity

Cubism

Frank Lloyd Wrights Open Plan

Mies’s Barcelona Pavilion

• Quantum Theory

(?)

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Pratt Institute School of Architecture Undergraduate Architecture Program

Arch 308 Modernism Fall 2003

____________ section number ________________________________________________________________________________ last name first name (preferred first name) _____________________________________ ____ ______________________________ telephone number email ________________________________________________________________________________ address ________________________________________________________________________________ previous art and architecture history courses at Pratt ________________________________________________________________________________ previous college experience if any ________________________________________________________________________________ art and architecture history courses at previous college if any ________________________________________________________________________________ place of birth ________________________________________________________________________________ is English a second language for you? what languages besides English do you speak? ________________________________________________________________________________ countries in which you have lived ________________________________________________________________________________ particular interests in architecture ________________________________________________________________________________ particular interests outside of architecture

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